Vancouver Real Estate agent dismisses August numbers as "meaningless information"

As realtor Larry Yatkowsky tells us, the press release from the Greater Vancouver Real Estate Board is all warm and fuzzy because of the August real estate numbers.

According to the Board, “August activity in the Greater Vancouver housing market finished well above last year’s pace and slightly below the 10-year average for the month.” To this is added that residential property sales in Greater Vancouver increased 52% compared to the same month in 2012. The not so fuzzy stuff is that August sales declined 14.7% from the month before and less fuzzy is that the market is still 4.6% below the 10 year average.

So the bottom line is that the market is still well below average.  So real estate isn't exactly churning along at the gang buster hype the news would have you believe.  It's just not incredibly dismal as what we've witnessed over the preceding 8 months.

Interesting.

That's a message that John Grasty, a real estate agent from Port Moody, would like to make clear to you.

Grasty is a real estate agent who bills himself as a 'homeowner advocate'. And he is front and centre in a 24hours newspaper article that proclaims 'Real estate numbers can deceive.

Now we all know the real estate industry are masters of the type of number crunching that would make even theoretical physicists blush, but its rare that we hear dissenting commentary from members within the industry.  And Grasty wants you to temper your reaction to the industry hype.

In the article, 24hours gives us the Industry spin that says real estate sales in Vancouver are reported to be on the upswing since last year but then throws cold water on that news by telling us those same numbers are being questioned by Grasty:

The B.C. Real Estate Association released figures in July showing a 32% dollar increase in home sales compared to July 2012. Analyst Brendon Ogmundson said considering how bad last year’s real estate sales were, the new numbers show a balanced market.

The association also released a report in August predicting residential sales to increase another 3.9% by the end of the year.

“The market is generally strengthening,” said Ogmundson. “When we look at year-to-year numbers are a little skewed because sales were so weak last year, but generally sales in the Vancouver region are improving and have been since about May.”

But Grasty says there isn’t much point to such analysis of the market.

“The only thing that counts is what happened most recently in sales to determine market value,” said Grasty. “If there’s a ton of product on the market, then chances are we’re in a buyers’ market.”

He said a major problem with the view of large markets is certain areas may not be reflected accurately. Just because homes in some areas are selling doesn’t mean the entire market is selling, he said.

“What’s happening when you average it all out is meaningless information,” said Grasty, adding that because some people take the predictions too seriously he has to burst their bubble when they list their home for too high a price.

What are you saying John, that the garbage we get from the real estate cartel is 'meaningless'? Can't say we disagree.

And as if to hammer that point home, the 24hours article ends with the perfect stereotypical quote from BC Real Estate analyst Brendon Ogmundson:

Ogmundson said it’s always a good time either for buyers or for sellers.

Of course it is. It's ALWAYS a good time to make a commission, right Brendon?

==================

Email: village_whisperer@live.ca
Click 'comments' below to contribute to this post.

Please read disclaimer at bottom of blog.

Wed Post #2: Huffington Post carries story of 'fake mansion' being marked down $25 million.

On Tuesday we told you  how West Van's infamous 'fake mansion', once Canada's most expensive listing at $38 million, had been marked down by $25 million.

We wondered if the Vancouver Sun or Province newspaper would pick up on the story with the same gusto shown back in February when they helped the fake pictures go viral around the world, but to date there's been no response (thus reinforcing their inevitable slide into irrelevance).

But that doesn't mean the mainstream press is ignoring the story.

The Huffington Post has picked up the ball and run with it: Canada's Most Expensive House Marked Down by $25 Million (hat tip: Many Franks):

One day you're Canada's most expensive house, the next you're just a teardown on a ritzy piece of land.

A seaside property located at 3810 Marine Drive in West Vancouver, which was the country's priciest listing last February, has been marked down from $38 million to $12,888,000. That's a hefty drop of $25 million and change.

Current listing agent Lionel Lorence, couldn't say why the original asking price was so high, but acknowledged there was little reality behind the colossal tag.

"The real estate values on the West Vancouver waterfront are rich prices, but this one when it came out, at $37.9 million, seemed to be exorbitant," he told The Huffington Post B.C.

The house itself is a teardown, but the value is in the land, The North Shore Outlook reported in February.

The rancher bungalow built by a shipping magnate in 1964 sits on a 34,000-square-foot lot with unobstructed views of the waterfront, with enough space to subdivide the property into three estates.

That's how West Vancouver realtors Laura McLaren and George Tsavdaris came up with the price at the time, figuring that any of three lots could be worth $10 million, while the house itself could go for $7.9 million, they told the newspaper.

The agents may have been a tad hopeful in pitching the prospect of a subdivision, said UBC real estate expert Tsur Somerville.

"It seems very, very optimistic on what they'd be able to get from the city in terms of a rezoning or a subdivision," he said.

Canada's most expensive home today is anything but a teardown. For $35 million, you can have a nine-bedroom Shaughnessy mansion with stained-glass windows, an art deco parkade and an oak-panelled elevator.

Tsur Somerville paints the realtor's responsible for that debacle - Laura McLaren and George Tsavdaris - as a 'tad optimistic.'

Personally we say Tsur is being a 'tad' polite.

==================

Email: village_whisperer@live.ca
Click 'comments' below to contribute to this post.

Please read disclaimer at bottom of blog.

Wed Post #1: What will the government do with a stubborn real estate market? Hit it again, of course.

“That deafening silence you hear is the sound of the Canadian housing bears gone quiet. Not only has the resale market absorbed last year’s round of mortgage rule tightening, but the supposedly at-risk banks have just recorded a unanimously better-than-expected earnings season, with a handful of dividend increases to boot.”

Those are the goading comments of Bank of Montreal economist Robert Kavcic, comments contained  in a research note he sent out on Friday.

And while this housing bear blog may have taken a summer break, we are far from quiet.

We are reminded of our January 13, 2013 post in which we talked about a Bank of Canada study suggesting lower home prices were a national priority.

A substantial downturn in prices – say, 10 to 20 per cent – would, in theory, not only reduce mortgage debts for new home buyers, but, significantly, push down non-mortgage debt to the tune of 4 to 8 per cent. That would get Finance Minister Jim Flaherty and Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney a lot closer to solving the country’s household debt problem, reducing what is considered a serious risk to the stability of the Canadian economy.

And if lower home prices are a 'national priority', you can be sure the Bank of Canada and the OFSI are far from finished in the efforts to achieve that goal.

Which is why it is not surprising that Canada's banking 'regulator eyes tighter mortgage rules.'

Canada’s banking regulator has been gathering detailed mortgage information from financial institutions, in what could be a precursor to changes in the rules for home loans.

The Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI) has spent months considering a tightening of mortgage rules for lenders, a decision that’s being weighed as the housing market begins to pick up after a year-long slump. That slide began when Finance Minister Jim Flaherty tightened the rules for mortgage insurance in July, 2012.

Policy-makers in Ottawa, including OSFI head Julie Dickson, have been concerned consumers are taking on too much debt and that house prices have risen too much. Toronto-Dominion Bank economists estimate that home prices are 8 per cent above what they’re actually worth, nationally. The average selling price of existing homes in July was 8.4 per cent higher than a year earlier, driven by a resurgence in the pricier markets of Vancouver and Toronto.

Years of ultra-low interest rates have spurred consumers to take on more mortgage debt than they might have otherwise. To rein the market in, Ottawa has tightened the rules around mortgage insurance four times since 2008 – Mr. Flaherty’s latest move cut the maximum amortization period for an insured home loan to 25 years from 30. Insurance is mandatory for home buyers who have less than 20 per cent of the purchase price of a house as a down payment.

The government and the Bank of Canada have made it clear what they want to occur in the real estate sector.

The next moves should not really come as a great surprise.

==================

Email: village_whisperer@live.ca
Click 'comments' below to contribute to this post.

Please read disclaimer at bottom of blog.

Once Canada's 'most expensive listing', asking price for West Van's 'fake mansion' slashed by $25 million (or 66%)

You all remember the infamous 'fake mansion' we told you about back in February 2013?

The notorious tear down property at 3810 Marine Drive in West Vancouver gained worldwide notoriety for it's ridiculous $38 million listing price, the most expensive Canadian real estate listing at the time (it's assessed at a lowly $6,768,500).

This highly promotable fact was embellished by listing agents who profiled the property with extensive interior and exterior pictures of a gaudy, ostentatious mansion.

Just one problem... no such mansion exists. Here is what is actually on the land for sale:

One could argue it was all a brilliant marketing ploy.  

An asking price which made it the most expensive home for sale in Canada along with accompanying pictures of an over the top palace... a sure-fire formula for worldwide media interest, right?

Said one of the listing real estate agents at the time:

“Who’s going to buy this house?” Tsavdaris asked rhetorically. “A king of China will buy this house, or a Bollywood movie star will buy this house.”

More likely, a developer will buy the house and subdivide the property into three separate estates. In fact, there has already been some movement on it.

“We’ve had offers on it but unfortunately they haven’t come up to the price that’s wanted by the seller,” Tsavdaris said. “All the offers we’ve had have been from developers to build three monster homes there. But we’re hoping to find that one candidate from Bollywood or from China that would want to keep it as one property.”

After it was pointed out to the media that the mansion pictures were fake, the listing agents insisted that there wasn't any deliberate attempt to mislead and that the fake photos were merely:

"a rendering of what could be built on this property."

A media frenzy erupted and the online editor of the Vancouver Province was moved to respond to our blog.

So how did that marketing strategy work out?  Did the house ever sell?

Observer, who moderates the excellent blog Vancouver Price Drop, tells us the property is not only still on the market - it has experienced yet another significant cut in it's asking price, the third since it made headlines in February.

• The February 2013 asking price was for $37.8 million.
• In March it was cut to $28,888,000.
• In April it was down to $19,888,000.
• And on Labour Day weekend the asking price was slashed to $12,888,000.

For those keeping track that's a drop of $25 million or 66%.

(And even at that it's asking price is still double the current assessed value)

$25 million taken off the asking price that made headlines around the world at the start of the year?

Surely this has to be Canada's most reduced property now as Canada's most expensive listing now harbour's Canada's biggest price drop. Do you think the Vancouver Sun or Province will hype this fact in one of their gallery features now?

==================

Email: village_whisperer@live.ca
Click 'comments' below to contribute to this post.

Please read disclaimer at bottom of blog.

Happy Labour Day

==================

Email: village_whisperer@live.ca
Click 'comments' below to contribute to this post.

Please read disclaimer at bottom of blog.

Perfect Storm?

Yesterday we talked about the Globe and Mail warning you about rising interest rates in an article that suggested ignoring that threat might be the 'biggest financial mistake you might make.'

Today's good news stories come from Business in Vancouver who tell us about a BMO report that says 'Canadian baby boomers  are significantly short on retirement savings'

Baby boomers across Canada have an average shortfall of $430,000 when it comes to their retirement savings, according to BMO Wealth Institute data released August 28.

This is followed up with the wonderful news that 'B.C. consumers still owe the most as personal debt levels rise again.'

The average Canadian consumer’s debt, excluding mortgages, increased in 2013’s second quarter to $27,131, according to a TransUnion report released this morning (August 28).

High debt? No savings for retirement?  Good thing many of us have been playing the real estate lottery, eh?

Which brings to mind our post back in March 2012 warning about Boomer's dumping their overvalued real estate to fund retirement and subsequent posts from Macleans and BMO who ruminated on similar concerns.

But Flippers don't have to worry about that (unless they've ignored the warnings and are currently caught holding), right?

Not so fast.

We also find out today that Tax auditors have targeted condo sellers in the hunt for ‘flippers’.

Seems that anyone who bought a condo unit pre-construction, then sold for a profit without actually moving in, is liable for capital gains tax, and must also repay the GST/HST refund that residents receive.

Folks who’ve sold condos or houses less than a year after taking possession seem to be the prime focus of CRA auditors so far, but tax lawyers are advising clients they could be at risk of a tax bill for at least 50 per cent of any gains made if they’ve sold before living in the property 18 months to two years.

Isn't that special?

Toss in the array of changing mortgage regulations, the weak global economy and the absence of HAM and surely the logical person can see the perfect storm forming.

==================

Email: village_whisperer@live.ca
Click 'comments' below to contribute to this post.

Please read disclaimer at bottom of blog.

In the years ahead: the biggest financial mistake you might make?

Couldn't help but key in on a line from a Globe and Mail article this week.

In the years ahead, the biggest financial mistake you make just might be failing to think well in advance about a mortgage coming up for renewal.

It is, of course, an article about the damage rising interest rates might do to those in debt.

The era of pleasant surprises for people renewing their mortgages is over.

After five years of trending lower, mortgage rates have reversed course and started to rise. Aspiring first-time home buyers are being priced out of the market by these increases, but at least they’ve avoided a costly mortgage entanglement. Existing homeowners may simply have to pay more.

... how people will afford higher mortgage payments (?)

We’ve been assured by people in the mortgage industry that homeowners can absorb higher mortgage payments. A 2011 report from the Canadian Association of Accredited Mortgage Professionals said there is “very substantial room” for households to pay higher mortgage rates. Will Dunning, CAAMP’s chief economist, said Monday that he stands by that view.

But the issue is not whether you can afford higher mortgage payments. Rather, it’s what you’ll have to sacrifice to make them.

Sacrifice?

The mere thought is still ridiculous to just about everyone you talk to.  No one can conceive of any kind of dramatic change in rates.

But it's always like that.  

In October 1971, when interest rates were 9.55%...

... people of the day would have thought you were crazy if you were to suggest they would be 20.54% by October of 1981.

Conversely, it you were to tell those people in 1979-1981 that interest rates would have plummeted to 13.75% by October of 1990, they wouldn't have believed you (although they would have cheered the optimism).

Jump 10 more years into the future to October 2000 and rates are an astonishing bargain at 8.08%....

... at least they would have been a bargain to the people of the day.

Jump just over 10 more years to the present, and what to make of the emergency level interest rates of 2.25 -3.25%? Talk to anyone today and the idea of a 6% interest rate is pure fantasy, never mind 8.08%.

If you look at history, the 10 year jumps have brought dramatic change... change which each generation would not have believed at the time.

If the next 10 years brings change again, will it surprise? More significantly, will you allow yourself to be surprised?

==================

Email: village_whisperer@live.ca
Click 'comments' below to contribute to this post.

Please read disclaimer at bottom of blog.

Netherlands Real Estate Bubble Bursts - BBC

ht - Ben Rabidoux

==================

Email: village_whisperer@live.ca
Click 'comments' below to contribute to this post.

Please read disclaimer at bottom of blog.

Will Return Shortly

Hello all.  

Thanks for all the emails enquiring as to the recent prolonged absence. It never ceases to amaze just how many stop by this little corner of the internet each day.

And while emails (and comments) may have gone unanswered, they are all read - and appreciated. Thank you for taking the time.

Hopefully regular posts will resume shortly.

==================

Email: village_whisperer@live.ca
Click 'comments' below to contribute to this post.

Please read disclaimer at bottom of blog.

HouseGate: The logical mind asks - Is freedom of the press under attack from the Vancouver Mayor's Office?

Last Friday Frances Bula said:

Okay, this is Friday fluff, but whatever. I feel I must contribute to the ongoing deep investigations into Mayor Gregor Robertson’s change of abode... No one seems to see Robertson’s move, from a single-family house near Emily Carr elementary in central Vancouver to a smaller place in Kits near the beach, as symbolic of the prototypical Vancouver downsizing. Instead, it seems to have turned into massive theory-building about how it has something to do with the Point Grey bike lane. Or his federal-election ambitions. Or something.

This seemingly vacuous controversy spawned from our original post which simply made note of the fact that the Mayor's home was on the market.

It's important to note that in that post we only mused on whether our not his worship was cashing out of our City's massive housing bubble.

So how did this morph into a political controversy?

It was the Mayor's office who transformed this story into something to do with the Point Grey bike lane.  They responded the next morning with this press statement that directly tied the issue of the Mayor moving to the Point Grey bike lane:

  

Our post was made on Tuesday night.  The next morning, with lightening speed, the Mayor's office issues a press release confirming that the house was for sale and that the Mayor had already purchased a new house.

The Mayor's office then specifically linked the new purchase to the Point Grey/Cornwall bike corridor. So serious was this tie-in that the press statement came complete with a legal opinion from the City Solicitor and an admission that this announcement had been weeks in the making.

Then came the next domino.  The press release stated:

They recently purchased a new home in Kitsilano within a block of York Street. For security reasons we don’t disclose the specific location.

Security reasons? Naturally a media frenzy erupted trying to root out these reasons. Within hours Business in Vancouver newspaper was out with breaking news via this tweet:

BIV released a story which profiled the exact location of the Mayor's new house.

It was news because the location revealed that the Bike lane controversy was even greater than originally reported.  He wasn't moving "somewhere in Kits a block away from York Street." The Mayor was moving right next to the most contentious area of the Point Grey/Cornwall route - Point Grey Road - and it appears this info was known in advance of the public opeen house.

This was huge news.

News which the Mayor's office not only created, but compounded by waiting to reveal it.

Why had they waited to acknowledge what they themselves had deemed would be a potential conflict of interest weeks earlier?

Was this news held back so it wouldn't come out during the public information open houses meetings on the Point Grey/Cornwall Bike route proposal?

Was the news only acknowledged in response to our blog post because the Mayor's office hoped they would never have to actually acknowledge the moveuntil long after the fact?

The exact location of the Mayor's new residence has been transformed into an important component of the conflict-of-interest debate specifically because the Mayor's office was not forthcoming with the  news until they were forced to reveal it.

As such, the newsworthiness of the precise location of his new residence was deemed important enough by the media to outweigh any individual privacy concerns.

Thus BIV ran their story.

But then a curious thing happened to that BIV piece (hilighing a phenomenona that could never happen in the era of print of journalism).  

Did anyone notice?

On July 11th the online version of BIV's story was suddenly and quietly redacted.  All reference to the specific location of the Mayor's new residence eliminated.  Even reference to the general location was removed. 

Why redact the general location at the nexus of York/Stephens/Point Grey Road?  That's the heart of the whole story!

Was BIV pressured into censoring these details? Or did they remove that info of their own accord?

Curiously, despite the apparent censorship by BIV, the author of the article - Bob Mackin - published all pertinent details on his own blog: (see this screen shot taken on July 11th - we've blacked out the specific address)

This seems to indicate the censorship did not occur internally at BIV, at least due to any legal concerns.

If there had been legal concerns, presumably Mackin would have been advised of them and he wouldn't have posted those details on his own blog just as his own paper was censoring them.  

But then there's another twist, Mackin's article was updated July 15th and the specific details of the Mayor's residence removed:

So what gives? Several serious questions are raised here.  

The reasonable man/woman logically wonders what triggered BIV into censoring their original story.  It's also logical to wonder if the Mayor's office played any role.  

Before the move to Kits was even even announced by the Mayor's office (MO), the MO were citing 'security concerns.'  What security concerns?  There couldn't have been any documented issues prior to the press release because the news hadn't even been announced yet.

Was our Mayor was already receiving threats at his old residence at 912 West 23rd Avenue?

As we noted in our original post, the Mayor's home address is a matter of public record, available in online documents available from city hall. If there have been prior threats, why haven't we been told?  There is no place in our society for threats against our elected officials.  Whatever your position regarding our civic political debates, the idea that our Mayor may be at risk is totally unacceptable and cannot be tolerated. If there have been prior documented threats, was Chief of Police Chu notified? And what has he done to address them?

But there doesn't appear to be any record of prior threats, just concerns about what 'might be'.

And why wasn't just the specific address removed?  Why were all references to the general area of York/Stephens/Point Grey Road also pulled?

Various sources have suggested it might be extremely enlightening for the media to ask two specific questions:

• Why did BIV pull their story, and 
• Did the Mayor's office pressure a Vancouver news outlet to censor their reporting?

Anyone care to enquire with these two entities directly for the answers?

==================

Email: village_whisperer@live.ca
Click 'comments' below to contribute to this post.

Please read disclaimer at bottom of blog.

Sunday Post #2: Heml.is... the app designed to be 'NSA-proof'

In just 36 hours, users contributed $100,000 to fund an app designed to get around state spy agencies like the US National Security Agency (NSA). Swedish tech entrepreneurs, including Pirate Bay co-founder Peter Sunde, successfully crowdfunded the planned iOS and Android app named Heml.is, Swedish for "secret".

The creators claim, "We're building a message app where no one can listen in, not even us". The project seeks to provide an alternative to services offered by major tech companies, which they say "have been forced to open up their systems and hound out information about their users".

According to the website, the app will be free to download, but users will have to pay to unlock certain features. A release date has not yet been set.

==================

Email: village_whisperer@live.ca
Click 'comments' below to contribute to this post.

Please read disclaimer at bottom of blog.

If I had a $1,000,000 (Vancouver Style)

Taking a break from HouseGate, we thought we'd scan the horizon and see what a $1,000,000 buys you in Vancouver this week.

$1,000,000 used to the the benchmark that proudly said you had it made. So how glamorous is a million dollar home in our over-inflated housing bubble?

Let's take a look at some of the houses you can buy this week in Vancouver for just over a $1,000,000.

First up, 8007 French Street - $1,050,000:

5484 French Street - $1,088,000:

311 East 40th Avenue - $1,088,000

842 West 68th Avenue - $1,038,000

Dream mansions, all of them. And just think... nothing even left over to buy you a K-Car.

You gotta love Vancouver.

==================

Email: village_whisperer@live.ca
Click 'comments' below to contribute to this post.

Please read disclaimer at bottom of blog.

RECBC permanently cancels realtor's licence

In May 2012 we heard how realtor Sam Sharma's real estate licence was suspended indefinitely by the Real Estate Council of B.C. (RECBC) just days after his manager at Multiple Realty Ltd. told the council that money belonging to Sharma's clients may be missing in what appeared to be a misappropriation of funds by Sharma.

At the time, Sharma told CTV news that he was extremely remorseful and couldn't explain why he had such serious issues with money.

"I've been paying back creditors for the last two or three years, trying to please people, trying to make things right from my past, trying to put on a show of success. You're either really, really stupid to do this a second time, or I've got a very serious psychological problem with money."

By 'doing this a second time,' Sharma was referring to a 2005 incident where the RECBC cancelled his licence for five years as a result of a number of infractions, including misappropriating buyers' deposits and forging clients' signatures.

Sharma pleaded guilty in court to that 2005 offence and was ordered to pay back $45,000 in money that was supposed to be in trust.

Incredibly, after his five year suspension, Sharma was back in hot water with another misappropriation allegation.

In reviewing the 2012 offence over the past 13 months, the RECBC has finally come out and ruled that Sharma's licence is to be permanently cancelled.

In a press release issued Friday the RECBC said:

Smrat (Sam) Sharma was subject to an Order of a discipline committee that his licence be permanently cancelled. The cancellation of Mr. Sharma’s licensing under the Real Estate Services Act was effective as of June 6, 2013, although his licence was surrendered to the Real Estate Council on May 7, 2012.

Can we therefore conclude he was really, really stupid AND has a very serious psychological problem with money?

==================

Email: village_whisperer@live.ca
Click 'comments' below to contribute to this post.

Please read disclaimer at bottom of blog.

Mayor’s house has sold for asking - Frances Bula

The latest on our Mayor's housing saga is that his Cambie area house has not only sold... but sold for the asking price, at least according to this from Frances Bula's blog:

Okay, this is Friday fluff, but whatever. I feel I must contribute to the ongoing deep investigations into Mayor Gregor Robertson’s change of abode by reporting that his Douglas Park-area house has apparently sold, for the asking price of whatever it was, $1.95 million or something...

No one seems to see Robertson’s move, from a single-family house near Emily Carr elementary in central Vancouver to a smaller place in Kits near the beach, as symbolic of the prototypical Vancouver downsizing. Instead, it seems to have turned into massive theory-building about how it has something to do with the Point Grey bike lane. Or his federal-election ambitions. Or something.

Readers of this blog know we have focused around the former of those two angles to this story.  The latter we touched upon Wednesday when we hilighted this Georgia Straight story:

What's intriguing about the move is that Robertson now lives much farther away from his workplace at Vancouver City Hall.

Normally, cyclists like to live closer to the office.

Perhaps this suggests there could be federal political implications for Robertson, who is sometimes viewed as a future candidate for the Liberal Party of Canada.

His old residence is in the proposed new riding of Vancouver-Granville, which is being carved out of parts of other ridings in the city. There is no MP for this riding yet.

His new home is likely in Vancouver Quadra, which is represented by Liberal MP Joyce Murray. That's because most of York Avenue is west of Arbutus Street, which is the boundary for the riding. East of Arbutus is within Hedy Fry's riding of Vancouver Centre.

Murray ran against Justin Trudeau in this year’s federal Liberal leadership race.

Whoever becomes the Liberal candidate in Vancouver Quadra is likely a shoo-in to get elected to Parliament.

Could Robertson be planning a challenge against Murray for the Liberal nomination after he wins a third term as mayor in 2014? Stay tuned.

In case you missed it, the Georgia Straight did follow up on this story.

 In an article titled Mayor Gregor Robertson says he can't imagine seeking a Liberal nomination in Vancouver Quadra, the Straight reported:

The Mayor of Vancouver says his decision to sell his house and move west has nothing to do with federal politics.

In a scrum with reporters at the corner of Yew Street and West 4th Avenue, Gregor Robertson said he intends on remaining mayor as long as the citizens of Vancouver keep electing him to that position.

When the Straight asked if he would categorically rule out running for Parliament in the next federal election, he replied: “I can’t imagine that happening right now. As I’ve said, I’m looking at running for a third term as mayor.”

He also said: "We have a duly elected MP in Vancouver Quadra [Joyce Murray] who serves the city well."

The picture above was taken by the Straight as part of the media scrum that lead to the Straight's follow up. Looks like the media and our Mayor were having a cordial, folksy chat.

But there was a disturbing development affecting some of the very media coverage on this story that seems to have gone unnoticed by the esteemed members of our local fourth estate.

We're still trying to track down some information about it. We may have more for you Sunday afternoon.

==================

Email: village_whisperer@live.ca
Click 'comments' below to contribute to this post.

Please read disclaimer at bottom of blog.